Business Issues

DIY Advertising... Tread Carefully

The current widespread drive by businesses to lower costs and to save money
has contributed to increasing instances of the advertising function being
“brought in-house” and being done by small business owners.
The consequential declines in professionalism and appeal are conspicuous.
Sales, profits, images, consumer satisfaction and loyalties have been impacted.
Such practices are typically not the sole causal factors for adverse trends.
However, they are exacerbating very taxing circumstances.
Perhaps now is the time for businesses to progress from DIY (Do It Yourself )
advertising to DIFM (Do It For Me).

By Barry Urquhart

Many direct−mail−pieces
and hardcopy catalogues
for hardware retailers,
homeware networks,
electrical contractors,
plumbers, tradespeople
and discount operations
suffer from the same
deficiencies

The internet gives access to a
seemingly limitless array of applications,
information, graphics and capacity.

For the uninitiated, unskilled, naive,
but often well-intentioned, it exposes owners,
managers and the business to the prospect
of mediocrity and, possibly, embarrassing
incompetence. Beware unskilled endeavours online
(and in life generally).

Internally generated images of entities, properties
and individuals are often unprofessional and
compromised, and responses marginalised.

Evidence abounds in all media and public presences.
The poor quality, irrelevance, unappealing
presentation and marginal readability of much real
estate advertising and promotion are proof-positive
of the contention.

Newspaper advertising volumes for the real estate
sector are down by as much as 80% in some
mass circulation publications. Among the common
responses by those in the real estate sector is that the
blame lies with the medium, rather than the content.

A close study and analysis of what pages are left for
reading by intending home buyers quickly highlight
a regression to the 1950s and early 60s: the “selling
era” has been reborn.

A bias to Product, Price and Place is occasionally
relieved by a focus on Person. Photographs for
most real estate agents appear to have been taken
on a mobile phone and transmitted direct to the publication. Any consideration of quality appears to
have been overwhelmed by an emphasis on costsaving.
False economy indeed.

Would you buy a home from the person featured in
such photographs?

Many direct−mail−pieces and hardcopy catalogues
for hardware retailers, homeware networks,
electrical contractors, plumbers, tradespeople
and discount operations suffer from the same
deficiencies. Little wonder response rates from
direct-response communications have halved
during the past five years.

In many sale and discount catalogues the things
that are most discounted are the images and brands
of the company, the products and the services.

LOW COST, LOW RESPONSE
A large pool of experienced, qualified, creative
and innovative advertising professionals, including
wordsmiths, graphic designers, media planners
and strategists exists throughout Australia. They
are largely unrecognised, under-valued, underutilised
and begging for the chance to address
challenges and provide effective inputs for clients
who value quality.

The costs of such talents are a sensitive issue, one
which overwhelms appreciation of the value inherent
in such intellectual property.

It is these professionals who appreciate the roles and
importance of target-marketed communications,
with a strong element of emotion that provides
the foundations for establishing, sustaining and
enhancing a compelling reason for customers and
clients to visit (on-line and in person), to stay longer,
to purchase, to revisit, to reconnect and, above all,
to become strong brand advocates.

SAVE OR MAKE MONEY
The pervasive, enveloping forces of the current tight
and competitive local, national and global economies
and marketplaces have, understandably, been
instrumental in instilling a sense of need and a strong
drive for business owners and managers to undertake
actions that save money. Save me, please!

The essence of commerce, enterprise,
entrepreneurism and business is to make money,
not to save money. The two are, in many respects,
divergent mind-sets.

In a marketplace that is experiencing widespread
reductions in communication, (volume and quality),
the effect of an ability to stand-out, to make an
impact, to resonate and to influence with wellcrafted
and executed advertising, marketing,
merchandising, promotions and selling is immense.
But, the full potential will not be realised by DIY (Do
It Yourself) advertising in particular.

Now, more so than for any time in the past decade,
disciplined adherence to standards must be invoked
and maintained.

Advice, input and feedback from life partners, family
members, employees and close associates do not
qualify or achieve the status of objective, detailed
and professional contributions.

DIFM MARKETPLACE
Significant strategic and structural changes
in buying patterns and preference have been
conspicuous and influential in European and North
American marketplaces. There has been noticeable
progression from the DIY (Do It Yourself) market
segments in hardware, food and a host of other
categories to DIFM. That is, “Do It For Me”.

Consumers are happy to pay for the service, the
professionalism and enhanced presentations.

Sadly, Australian businesses have been slow to
embrace the service and its opportunities.

In advertising, marketing, merchandising and
promotions there is much to be gained by those
who have recently lapsed into DIY advertising to
evolve, develop and progress to DIFM advertising.

The selection and placement of fonts, wordings,
headlines, graphics and the selective use of spacing
are an art form.

The innate nuances have multiplying and magnifying
impacts on consumers’ responses and actions. This
is simply an aspect of advertising and marketing
that should be left to the professionals. Personal
preferences have little relevance.

Barry Urquhart, Managing Director of
Marketing Focus, Perth,
is a former lecturer
in Management
and Marketing at
the Curtin University
of Technology in
Australia. He is
an internationally
recognised facilitator
of interactive strategic
planning workshops
and conference
keynote speaking.

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